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What Period Of Time In Your Personal Life, Were You Most Actively Shooting Your Firearms?


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So far in my 52 years on the planet my most active years of shooting were in my mid 30s to early 40s. I expected to be more active with the shooting hobby when I retired. Now I realize retirement won't happen before 70. I am wondering how many members here increased their shooting activities after they hit 70.
 
My late teens to mid 20's were a busy time for shooting , since I was in the Army then.
30's- 40's...was still steady with shooting , not to the same level as earlier .
40's - 50's ....still go fairly often....I like to shoot , work and such gets in the way....:D

I'll be 54 in July ...and I'll still be shooting and enjoying the outdoors.
Most of my friends at the gun club are in the 60's - 70's...and they still get out and shoot....
Can't imagine that I will be any different.

One of best shots at the club was a guy named Harold...he was still shooing good , well into his 80's.
When he showed up to a match...you really had to be shooting well to keep up with him.
Andy
 
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I've shot competitively in at least one discipline since my early teens. That slowed some during the kiddo raising years but has now picked up again now that I'm semi-retired. Overall though it's been pretty constant. I'm 63.

Like Andy noted, most of those at the clubs I frequent are older than me. The antis don't really need to do anything to "rid the country of guns" but be patient.
 
I got a late start - mid to late 20's. Early 30's a lot. Still in my 30's but things have dropped off as the comp scene in VA here kind of sucks.

It'll be another 3-ish decades before I hit my 70's. At that point, I expect we won't be doing much recreational shooting anymore. But for those of us who survive, the occasional zombie or raiding party will make for good sport.
 
I likely shot the most when I was seven to fifteen years old. My Grandfather gave me a single shot .22 and a couple of hundred acres to hunt. I killed untold numbers of greydiggers and any bird that wasn't flying. I killed my first buck at age 9 with a 32-20. I'm almost 76 already and go to the range now and then but I've become more of a collector than a shooter. I live for Elk season thought.
 
I don't really know, I've been a gun guy/shootest since my early 20's and still consider myself as such here in my mid 60's. There have been ebbs and flows but I've always had guns and shot them when I wanted to. I've shot several different competitive disciplines over the years so one might say I was shooting more then, but the thing is I'd like to get back into competitive shooting so may well shoot even more now that I am retired sort of.
 
I used to shoot all the time when i was younger. 3 positions rifle and my dad shot bullseye, we were at the gun club min 2 days a week up until high school. weekends we were off in the woods shooting, hunting, or Gun shows. when high school started my step mom ruined a lot of that and after high school i just got too busy working. Ive never stopped shooting or hunting but now that i am a bit older i find myself shooting a lot more and collecting a lot more as well.
 
I'm slowing down a lot more than I like to admit. Things like weather or potential weather keep me away when it didn't before. Now in my late 50s.

Realistically, the last 2 years, ammo prices and lack of availability didn't help. Up until then my late 40s to mid 50s had been pretty solid.
 
Late teens and early 20's before life got "too busy".

Ammo prices are not a huge issue for the most part because I bought a lot of ammo during that same time period. I am prepared to do more shooing in the coming years when I have more free time.
 
When I was young, my Dad and my maternal grandfather both had bench rests basically in their front yards on large properties (500+ acres). Shooting opportunities were abundant. When I turned forty, I got into archery and devoted a lot of my shooting time to that pursuit. Now that I'm retired, I'm still into archery but gravitating back toward firearms. The advantage archery has is, arrows (although expensive) are reusable and not very hard to find. Nocks and field points are much more easily obtained than primers and bullets. :D
 
College years. 19-22. I was on the pistol team at OSU, and was a range officer/instructor for pistol club. That meant 3 days a week I got to go to the indoor range and shoot. On top of that I was going to every speed steel event at ARPC, a decent amount of USPSA events, and then heading out to Marry's peak 1-2 times a month.
 
I wanted to shoot a lot in my 20s and 30s but either the opportunity or money wasn't there. I've done 2-4 matches a month for past 18 yrs or so. Generally at the range at least another 1x/wk, match or not. If I'm working on a "project" gun or developing a rifle load for accuracy I'll be at the range more often. My range has 3 fun matches a month and I MD one of them, so I've really cut back on driving to other matches.
 
Fairly nonstop 2 to 4 times a month 30 to 65.
Still loading and shooting at least monthly, mainly thanks to a closer range via membership, but the last decade, everything in life seems in slow motion, not just shooting, so shooting volume, along with the rest of my productivity, is down to 10 to 20% of my prime.
Heck just thinking about, and typing this, took ten minutes!:rolleyes:
 
I had to go back and change my vote.

Originally I said 60-69, just because after retirement, I spent a lot of time at the range, every week. At 70, I'm shooting far less. My shooting buddy has slowed down, so it's made me slow down. I hope I can fix that.

Then, I remembered back to my up-to 29 year period. Not only did I spend a ton of time in the woods shooting, I also shot competitive trap. That was a lot of shooting, and I think overall, that was my busiest shooting period. Oh, and I forgot... Add my Army time and without a doubt that was my shootin'est time.
 
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Like Andy noted, most of those at the clubs I frequent are older than me. The antis don't really need to do anything to "rid the country of guns" but be patient.
I agree with this. At the range, it's mostly old guys like me. On any given range day, take away the old guys, and the range will be mostly empty.
 
Because I am retired (30 years in the Army) and just turned 68, I have time and funds to shoot all the time and do. In the Army as a Special Forces NCO I really didn't shoot as much as I wanted! Now between the local club once a week match, NRL .22 2 times a month, Long range practice once a month (live fire Practice), Long range match once a month and teaching my Grandchildren safety and just having fun I have to say I shoot way more now than before I retired. If it every gets to where I am not having fun I will stop but I still enjoy shooting, not so much cleaning and reloading:)

Scott

RLTW
 
From ~9 years old when I shot my dad's Colt 1911 to probably about 5 years ago. All the craziness and my disinterest in paying too much really slowed things down.
 
I shot a lot in the military. Then I slowed down and sold most of my guns when buying a house and raising a family. During that time, a 24/7 on-call job slowed me down until I retired. Since then I've collected a number of pieces and even built a few, but it's getting harder and harder to find a place to shoot. :(
 

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